Cover not available

Article published In: Beyond Words: Pragmatic approaches to visual discourses in digital interactions
Edited by Agnese Sampietro and Carmen Pérez-Sabater
[Internet Pragmatics 8:2] 2025
► pp. 326–353

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB

“Should I text or should I shoot?”

Exploring the use and interpretation of screenshots in mobile instant messaging interactions

 | Universitat Jaume I
Open Access logo
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Open Access publication of this article was funded through a Transformative Agreement with Universitat Jaume I.

Published online: 17 July 2025
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ip.00130.sam
Abstract
Screenshots have become a ubiquitous form of visual communication in current digital discourse. Despite similarities to photographs, screenshots differ in the mechanical nature of their production and blur the boundaries between written text and images, often displaying written text seamlessly integrated as visual attachments in written conversations. Drawing on a sample of excerpts from WhatsApp chats among young people in Spain, this study uses digital conversation analysis (DCA) as a methodological framework to analyse the sequential position of screenshots in instant messaging interactions, as well as intermodal coherence and cohesion. In addition to providing a better understanding of this distinct form of visual discourse in everyday interactions, the findings also provide insight into the role of screenshots in contemporary digital literacies.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
    • 2.1Origins, conceptualisation and functions of screenshots
    • 2.2Screenshots in interaction
  • 3.Method
  • 4.Analysis: Screenshots in interaction
    • 4.1Screenshots in openings
    • 4.2Screenshots in responses
    • 4.3Screenshots in closings
  • 5.Discussion and conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
References (64)
References
Androutsopoulos, Jannis. 2014. “Moments of sharing: Entextualization and linguistic repertoires in social networking.” Journal of Pragmatics 731: 4–18. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2021. “Polymedia in interaction.” Pragmatics and Society 1251: 707–724. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Berglund, Therese Örnberg. 2009. “Disrupted turn adjacency and coherence maintenance in instant messaging conversations.” Language@Internet 61, article 2. [URL] (accessed 22 March 2022).
Bolter, Jay David and Robert Grusin. 2000. Remediation: Understanding New Media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cánovas, Guillermo, Alicia García de Pablo, Ana Oliaga San Atilano, and Isabel Aboy Ferrer. 2014. “Menores de edad y conectividad móvil en España: tablets y smartphones [Minors and mobile connectivity in Spain: Tablets and smartphones].” [URL] (accessed 20 March 2024).
Charaudeau, Patrick, and Dominique Maingueneau. 2002. Dictionnaire d”analyse du discours [Dictionary of Discourse Analysis]. Paris: Éditions du Seuil.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chen, Ying-Yu, Frank Bentley, Christian Holz, and Cheng Xu. 2015. “Sharing (and discussing) the moment: The conversations that occur around shared mobile media.” In Proceedings of the 17th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services, 264–273. Copenhagen: ACM. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Coluccini, Roberto. 2020. “How the screenshot became one of the internet’s most powerful tools.” Vice, 29 June. [URL] (accessed 7 October 2024).
Corry, Frances. 2021. “Screenshot, save, share, shame: Making sense of new media through screenshots and public shame.” First Monday 26(4). Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cortés Rodríguez, Luis. 1991. Sobre conectores, expletivos y muletillas en el español hablado [On Conjunctions, Expletives and Fillers in Spoken Spanish]. Málaga: Agora.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cramer, Emily M., Bryan M. Jenkins, and Yoonmo Sang. 2023. “What’s behind that screenshot? Digital windows and capturing data on screen.” Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 29(3): 467–480. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Drew, Paul. 2013. Turn designs. In The Handbook of Conversation Analysis, ed by Jack Sidnell, and Tanya Stivers, 131–149. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Eisenlauer, Volker. 2014. “Facebook: A multimodal discourse analysis of (semi)automated communicative modes.” In Interactions, Images and Texts: A Reader in Multimodality, ed. by Sigrid Norris, and Carmen Daniela Maier, 311–322. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Frosh, Paul. 2019. The Poetics of Digital Media. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2023. “Screenshots and the memory of photography.” In Screen Images: In-Game Photography, Screenshot, Screencast, ed. by Winfried Gerling, Sebastian Möring, and Marco De Muttis, 173–192. Berlin: Kulturverlag Kadmos Berlin.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gerling, Winfried, Sebastian Möring, and Marco De Mutiis (eds.). 2023. Screen Images: In-Game Photography, Screenshot, Screencast. Berlin: Kulturverlag Kadmos. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gershon, Ilona. 2010. “Breaking up is hard to do: Media ideologies and media switching.” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 2021: 389–405. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2020. “The Breakup 2.1: The ten-year update.” The Information Society 3651: 279–289. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Giles, David, Wyke Stommel, and Trena M. Paulus. 2017. “The microanalysis of online data: The next stage.” Journal of Pragmatics 1151: 37–41. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Giles, David, Wyke Stommel, Trena Paulus, Jessica Lester, and Darren Reed. 2015. “Microanalysis of online data: The methodological development of ‘Digital CA’.” Discourse, Context & Media 71: 45–51. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving. 1959. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gómez Cruz, Edgar and Ramaswaami Harindranath. 2020. “WhatsApp as ‘technology of life’: Reframing research agendas.” First Monday 25(12). [URL] (accessed 20 March 2023).
Goodwin, Charles. 1981. Conversational Organisation: Interactions between Speakers and Hearers. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Goodwin, Marjorie H. 2006. “Participation, affect, and trajectory in family directive/response sequences.” Text & Talk 26(4–5): 515–543. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grice, H. Paul. 1975. “Logic and conversation.” In Speech Acts, ed. by Peter Cole, and Jerry L. Morgan, 41–58. New York: Academic Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halliday, Michael, and Ruqaia Hasan. 1976. Cohesion in English. London: Longman.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Herring, Susan. 1999. “Interactional coherence in CMC.” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 4(4), JCMC444. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Herring, Susan C. 2007. “A faceted classification scheme for computer-mediated discourse.” Language@Internet 41, article 1. [URL] (accessed 20 March 2023).
Hutchby, Ian. 2001. “Technologies, texts and affordances.” Sociology 35(2): 441–456. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ingber, Alexis Shore. 2025. “Understanding screenshot collection and sharing on messaging platforms: A privacy perspective.” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 30(1), zmae023. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jaynes, Victoria. 2020. “The social life of screenshots: The power of visibility in teen friendship groups.” New Media & Society 22(8): 1378–1393. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jenkins, Bryan M., and Emily M. Cramer. 2022. “Capturing injustice: The screenshot as a tool for sousveillance.” Howard Journal of Communications 33(4): 412–433. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Koivisto, Aino, Mikko T. Virtanen, and Heidi Vepsäläinen. 2023. “Applying conversation analysis to digital interaction.” In Conversation Analytical Perspectives to Digital Interaction: Practices, Resources, and Affordances, ed. by Aino Koivisto, Heidi Vepsäläinen, and Mikko T. Virtanen, 7–32. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
König, Katharina. 2019. “Stance taking with ‘laugh’ particles and emojis–Sequential and functional patterns of ‘laughter’ in a corpus of German Whatsapp chats.” Journal of Pragmatics 1421: 156–170. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2024. “Transmodal messenger interaction–Analysing the sequentiality of text and audio postings in WhatsApp chats.” Discourse, Context & Media 621, 100818. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kress, Gunther. 2010. Multimodality: A Social Semiotic Approach to Contemporary Communication. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ling, Richard. 2008. New Tech, New Ties: How Mobile Communication is Reshaping Social Cohesion. Cambridge: MIT Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Madianou, Mirka. 2014. “Smartphones as polymedia.” Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 1931: 667–680. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Madianou, Mirka, and Daniel Miller. 2012. “Polymedia: Towards a new theory of digital media in interpersonal communication.” International Journal of Cultural Studies 1621: 169–187. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marmorstein, Michal. 2023. “Why say ‘hi’? Framed openings in Hebrew WhatsApp messaging.” In A Conversation Analytic Perspectives to Digital Interaction: Practices, Resources and Affordances, ed. by Aino Koivisto, Mikko T. Virtanen, and Heidi Vepsäläinen, 43–70. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Marmorstein, Michal, and Katharina König. 2021. “Adapted and emergent practices in text-based digital discourse: The microanalysis of mobile messaging chats.” Discourse, Context & Media 421, 100521. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Meredith, Joanne. 2017. “Analysing technological affordances of online interactions using conversation analysis.” Journal of Pragmatics 1151: 42–55. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2019. “Conversation analysis and online interaction.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 52(3): 241–256. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mondada, Lorenza. 2014. “Pointing, talk and the bodies: Reference and joint attention as embodied interactional achievements.” In From Gesture in Conversation to Visible Action as Utterance: Essays in Honor of Adam Kendon, ed. by Mandana Seyfeddinipur, and Marianne Gullberg, 95–124. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mottelson, Aske. 2023. “Why do people take screenshots on their smartphones?” In Proceedings of the 2023 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference, 740–752. Pittsburgh: ACM. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Oloff, Florence. 2021. “New technologies — new social conduct? A sequential and multimodal approach to smartphone use in face-to-face interaction.” Bulletin Suisse de Linguistique Appliquée 11: 13–34. [URL] (accessed 20 March 2023)..
Papacharissi, Zizi. 2010. A Networked Self: Identity, Community, and Culture on Social Network Sites. New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Paulus, Trena, Amber Warren, and Jessica Nina Lester. 2016. “Applying conversation analysis methods to online talk: A literature review.” Discourse, Context & Media 121: 1–10. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rios, Josh. 2012. “Thoughts on making pictures of the screen from snapshot to screenshot.” [URL] (accessed 9 October 2024).
Sampietro, Agnese. 2021. “The use of the ‘face with tears of joy’ emoji on WhatsApp: A conversation-analytical approach.” In Workshop Proceedings of the 15th International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media. Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sampietro, Agnese, and Katharina König. 2024. “The medium is accountable: Metacommunication and media ideologies about voice messages in WhatsApp chats.” Discourse & Communication 1811: 51–71. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schegloff, Emanuel A. 1990. “On the organization of sequences as a source of ‘coherence’ in talk-in- interaction.” In Conversational Organization and Its Development, ed. by Bruce Dorval, 51–77. Noewood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Simpson, James. 2005. “Meaning-making online: Discourse and CMC in a language learning community.” In Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Multimedia and Information & Communication Technologies in Education Recent Research Developments in Learning Technologies, 175–179. Badajoz: Formatex.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stæhr, Andreas Candefors, and Thomas Rørbeck Nørreby. 2021. “The metapragmatics of mode choice.” Pragmatics and Society 12(5): 756–781. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stöckl, Hartmut. 2015. From text linguistics to multimodality: Mapping concepts and methods across domains. In Building Bridges for Multimodal Research: International Perspectives on Theories and Practices of Multimodal Analysis, ed. by Janina Wildfeuer, 51–75. Bern: Peter Lang.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Švelch, Jan. 2021. “Redefining screenshots: Toward critical literacy of screen capture practices.” Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 27(2): 554–569. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tagg, Caroline, and Rachel Hu. 2017. “Sharing as a conversational turn in digital interaction.” Woking Papers in Translanguaging and Translation, Paper 29. [URL] (accessed 20 March 2023).
Tagg, Caroline, and Agnieszka Lyons. 2021. “Polymedia repertoires of networked individuals: A day-in-the-life approach.” Pragmatics and Society 12(5): 725–755. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2022. Mobile Messaging and Resourcefulness: A Post-Digital Ethnography. New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2024. “Conversational rhythm as a disconnective practice among middle-aged adults in situated mobile-messaging interactions.” Journal of Pragmatics 2291: 56–70. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thelwall, Mike, Olga Goriunova, Farida Vis, Simon Faulkner, Anne Burns, Jim Aulich, Amalia Mas-Bleda, Emma Stuart, and Francesco D’Orazio. 2016. “Chatting through pictures? A classification of images tweeted in one week in the UK and USA.” Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology 67(11): 2575–2586. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Urban, Alex C. 2022. “Mementos from digital worlds: Video game photography as documentation.” Journal of Documentation 7921: 398–414. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Virtanen, Mikko T., Heidi Vepsäläinen, and Aino Koivisto. 2021. “Managing several simultaneous lines of talk in Finnish multi-party mobile messaging.” Discourse, Context & Media 391, 100460. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yus, Francisco. 2022. Smartphone Communication: Interactions in the App Ecosystem. Abingdon: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue